The Garden Starting 2019

The garden has changed tremendously since I last wrote.  I am actively growing lots of vegetables and flowers.  The trees are now grown and some are giving fruit such as loquats.  There are two loquat trees in our garden.  The peach tree is blooming and I am also growing celery in the "Farm Daddy" containers.

The asparagus bed has been dressed with composted manure and top soil.  Today I planted a mango tree in the Back of the Barn Garden by the fence.  Started a lot of seeds to include:  Parsley Giant of Italy, several kinds of sunflowers, marigold, tomatoes and Chives.

I have four varieties of nasturtiums and just planted Japanese Winged Beans.

This is my harvest of the peppers and culinary sage.

The cestrum bush is in the front of the house garden.  This bush attracts butterflies and releases its aroma at the end of the day.

This beautiful rosemary plant is one of my favorites.  It flowers sporadically but the small flowers are an intense lavender color.

There are four of these bushes.  It is bixa orellana or achiote.  One of these plants had some seed pods and I took pictures of them and went to see them every day until my granddaughter, Andrea, led by her curiosity went and picked them up to play.

The chickasaw plum tree is in flower at the moment.  It flowers before the leaves grow.  Last year I had some fruits from this tree.

Ludicia discolor orchid is in bloom.  This orchid is also called Jewel Orchid.  In reality this orchid is not famous because of the small white and yellow orchid clusters.  Its leaves steal the show because their color is incredibly beautiful.  The leaves are green with red stripes.  My ludicia has been in a green house and I took it out to take some fresh air after all danger of frost was past.

Well this will be all for now.  Happy Gardening

Tamarind Tree

I grow very many plants such as ornamental trees, fruit trees and bushes and, most important vegetables and herbs.

One of the fruit trees that I have had experience with is my tamarind tree.  First of all, I am in zone 9a bordering on zone 9b.  My location had nothing when we bought the property 4 years ago.  Since then we have created some micro-climate zones in our small place.  The tamarind is a tree originating in India.  It has been established in many places around the world and one of them is Puerto Rico where I am originally from.  The tamarind trees I grew up knowing give very sour fruits which are used to make juice.  Later on in life I discovered the kind that is sweet.  I purchased the sweet tamarind from a supermarket, ate the pulp, and started one of the seeds about three years ago on the spring of 2010 in a one gallon container.

I used regular potting soil and the tree was doing well.  In February of the year 2011 I protected the tree by placing it in the barn.  We have a wing of the barn dedicated to keeping my tropical and some subtropical plants during the winter months.  I noticed the tree was doing good so as soon as the weather was warm I took it out to get fresh air and kept it outside until next winter.

The tree had grown but I was not sure that it would survive a winter here since I have not seen any of its kind anywhere around our area.

During the winter of 2011 - 2012 I kept it in the barn again and when it was time to take everything out for the warm weather months I forgot about the tree and it was not until the next year I found the tree under a table in the barn.  It was alive.  I had not given it any food or water.  It was now about one foot tall and it has sustained itself with some rain water that had lightly flooded the barn floor on occasions during the rainy season.

I decided to research some more information on this tree and found out that it is actually hardy on our zone 9a.  I kept the tree in the container for another year and in spring 2013 I planted it in the ground.  It has been doing very well.  So far only worm castings and worm tea as fertilizer.  Some water if there is no rain for more than two weeks.  And the only protection this winter has been about three inches of mulch.  It has all its leaves and has grown about another foot.  Photographs will follow.

My Plants

Hello!  My plants are doing very well.  We are growing different kinds of vegetables and now we have strawberries growing.  This is our first time growing strawberies here.

We are also growing lettuce bib and two carrot varieties.  It is so much fun.

My Garden 2012

Sewing and crochet are two of my favorite hobbies but when it comes to gardening it is much more than just a hobby.  I like to grow vegetables, flowers and trees.  I grow many different kinds of tomatoes and lots of different flowers.  Among my favorite vegetables are beans, spinach, pigeon peas, onions, sweet peppers and okra.  My favorite winter vegetable is broccoli.

I like to grow climbing  plants such as morning glories, wax plant and Madagascar jasmine.

Among the trees I like are:  podocarpus, magnolia, red bud, and tabebuia.  I have all of these in my yard and others.

I grow ground covers such as ice plant, thyme, alyssum, verbena, and portulaca.  I also grow sunflowers, periwinkles, and several marigold varieties.

Lots of herbs and some butterfly attracting plants are also grown in my gardens.  I have different gardens in different parts of the yard.  The front garden is in the style of a cottage garden.  In back of the house I have created a shade garden and a vegetable garden.

A butterfly garden is finding its place in the back of the barn.  This garden will include plants that serve as food and others for nectar to attract butterflies such as:  Monarch and sulfurs.

Happy Gardening